2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate EGO. EASING GOD OUT is one way to describe it. The same Friend is wondering how EGO affects her life. LIZZY has no idea what it means to her. What does it mean to other people ? Jamie Duff once told HER that suicidal thoughts could be a healthy sign of one layer of the EGO killing off another. ‘ERE WE EGO.

The basic ego of a human being is expressed as ts’ao-yuan i-ti-shui, “a drop of water in the source”

“Wanting keeps the ego alive much more than having. Let’s talk about that.”

Tolle replied: “One of the main structures of the ego is it is never satisfied.”

King Solomon who had more opulence, wealth, and women than probably any man who ever lived said repeatedly “It is all vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Solomon who also possessed great wisdom, astounded many with his sayings, perhaps including himself at such revelatory discoveries.

Soul stirring eyes of gold delight,
All where reigning supreme-
Our blind secrecy’s dream
She seizes with Her all forgiving Sight.

Torn now asunder our ego’s screen,
Under Her Smile of Grace
Blooms quick our surrender’s face.
She paves the way to a life evergreen.

“I like the moment when I break a man’s ego”
(Bobby Fischer)

Snakes hiss; pigs grunt; and bills moo! They are asserting their ego, intent on keeping others away. Of the traits of ego, pride is the most poisonous. But, the pride of the scholar and the vanity of Pundits are so thick, that it is impossible for them to get rid of these.”

Like this:

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the DISTANCE between. HE is travelling North with the PASPALUM Band and SHE is at home in The Cottage on The Hill. Separation is a strange thing. One goes away for one reason and something else happens. Lets see what it is.

The love of horses knows not it’s own depth till the hour of separation.

And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. –Kahlil Gibran

MILAREPA

All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisitions and storing-up, and building, and meeting; and, faithful to the commands of an eminent Guru, set about realizing the Truth. That alone is the best of religious observances.

“Love is born with the pleasure of looking at each other, it is fed with the necessity of seeing each other, it is concluded with the impossibility of separation.”

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in timeand space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something
separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This
delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection
for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole
nature in its beauty.– Albert Einstein

There are sacred moments in life when we experience in rational and
very direct ways that separation, the boundary between ourselves
and other people and between ourselves and Nature, is illusion.
Oneness is reality. We can experience that stasis is illusory and
that reality is continual flux and change on very subtle and also
on gross levels of perception.– Charlene Spretnak

The art of the sword consists of never being concerned with victory or defeat, with strength or weakness, of not moving one step forward, nor one step backward, or the enemy not seeing me and my not seeing the enemy. Penetrating to that which is fundamental before the separation of heaven and earth where even yin and yang cannot reach, one instantly attains proficiency in the art.
– Takuan

There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?
You feel the separation
from the Beloved.
Invite Him to fill you up,
embrace the fire.

Like this:

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the lights at night. On the Far Ridge they string like a necklet. Along the Heights and out to sea. And on occasion – nights like this one light or two shine down at the Creek where the farmer lets people camp – from time to time. In the Cottage SHE has lights on. The Main House – because its sad up there now – has just the one or two lights in the living room before my old gentleman goes to bed. Once it was lit with dozens of candles and bright lights and on occasion the driveway lights were on as well. Up through the pine trees where tonight she saw the White Hoot Owl who was here when she came to live here 3 years ago. The day Marian died and one month before her father slept into the forever.

In the Cottage, SHE has all the lights on except for the bathroom where the fan comes on and whirrs with the light. Way back in Tumbulgum , sometimes the Very Bad Man would leave the porch light on for her and sometimes her son would come out and make sure she was home OK. Now SHE is home and waiting for HIM to come home and that means she has the LIGHTS ON.

Down at the Ovals at the Club , the lights were on till 9pm for the soccer game. Cars parked all over and cheers SHE can hear from The Hill. Soon , the Moon will rise from the Ocean and then SHE will turn out her lights and lie in bed with Moonlight.

Like this:

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate HER talks with other women. Too few lately. Tonight Siobhan called from Coffs Harbour and a good deal of talking was done and listening. A TAD OVER THE TOP – says Siobhan. When talking about HER reactions to the Loon of the Wintermoon. So they talked for hours through the Autumn afternoon into the sweetness of night while HE played with Kel and Scrubby in Fernvale Hall for an Anzac thingy. A wee talk with the Irish does no harm at all. Does a fair bit of good indeed it does. Motivates HER into defrosting the fridge and that takes some MOTIVATING. Its the talk with the IRISH so it is. Siobhan is from Northern Ireland and HER ancestors are from Limerick and Tipperary. Meantime Lizzy is trying to find out things about Patrick McNally from Roscommon. A long time ago. Wild Geese on the windowsill.

Here’s to your roof,
may it be well thatched
And here’s to all
under it –
May they be
well matched.Irish Toast

My mama always used to tell me: ‘If you can’t find somethin’ to live for, you best find somethin’ to die for. ~famous irish saying by Tupac Shakur

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.
– Winston Churchill

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting.
– John Millington Synge

The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven’t seen the joke yet.
– Oliver Herford

Like this:

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the Misery which arises unexpected and unrebuked. They consider the ways of responding and the mercilless grip on the Spirit. The Acedia of Broad Daylight. They consider the implications in the formation of a shared life and they weep. Dry – eyed bile filled drops of blood. Who is it that carries out this Torture ? What Dungeon of Soul encases the most ordinary of days and drags the corners of the mouth in a twisted marionette dance ? They consider the Souls before them – writhing in past agonies – ankle chained to a grief seemingly not of their time or experience. The Wild Celtic cry of OCHA shrieks – a stench of Sutherland Crofter Cottages on burning and massive cedar trunks shattered and stripped. Where then does the Spirit feed ? The Echo of Soul bounces again on a shadowed mountain and blisters the Waiting Soul – almost unnoticed. Making no sense – almost at all. A Findhorn Sand of ice.

PLAY ON MURWILLUMBAH COUNTRY RADIO STATION. PLAY ON.

My grief lies all within, and these external manners of lament are merely shadows to the unseen grief that swells with silence in the tortured soul.

TO stab my youth with desperate knives, to wear
This paltry age’s gaudy livery,
To let each base hand filch my treasury,
To mesh my soul within a woman’s hair,
And be mere Fortune’s lackeyed groom,—I swear
I love it not! these things are less to me
Than the thin foam that frets upon the sea,
Less than the thistle-down of summer air
Which hath no seed: better to stand aloof
Far from these slanderous fools who mock my life
Knowing me not, better the lowliest roof
Fit for the meanest hind to sojourn in,
Than to go back to that hoarse cave of strife
Where my white soul first kissed the mouth of sin.

By Oscar Wilde

Isaac Asimov:I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.

Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion. ~Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Evolution – A Poem by Sri Aurobindo

I Passed into a lucent still abode.
And saw as in a mirror crystalline.
An ancient force ascending serpentine
Of the ascending spirals of the aeonic road.
Earth was a cradle for the arriving God.
And man but a half-dark half-illuminous sign
Of the transition of the veiled Divine.
From Matter’s sleep and the tormented load
Of ignorant life and death to the spirit’s light.
Mind liberated swam Light’s ocean-vast
And life escaped from its grey tortured line
I saw matter illumining its parent Night
The soul could feel into infinity cast,
Timeless God-bliss the heart incarnadine.

Like this:

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate sitting doing nothing much. Lois said of Bill Wilson something to the effect that – Bill never ran when he could walk. Never walked when he could sit and never sat when he could lie.

Did some of his best work when he was lying down so he did or sitting at a wee table. So Mebbe we will SIT awhile. There’s a lot in SITTING.

But I say unto you,
Take this staff just as a staff;
Movement is movement;
Sitting is sitting,
but don’t wobble
under any circumstances!
My staff has turned into a dragon
and swallowed up the whole world.
Where are the poor mountains and rivers and great earth now?

Like this:

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate Night at home with only one light on and crickets in the long grasses. Autumn edging in and the phones silent.

He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.John Milton

Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.William Dement

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full
moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all
the way to your door.

Tis the night – the night Of the grave’s delight, And the warlocks are at their play; Ye think that without The wild winds shout, But no, it is they – it is they.~Arthur Cleveland Coxe